Residents have approved spending $19,070 on finishing touches for the new middle school gym.

Voters approved two separate purchases, with the money for both coming from a surplus of a little more than $40,000 left over from the $1.99 million wall project.

“I separated the items because some of them are short-term and the others are longer-term items,” First Selectman Austin Tanner said.

The Board of Finance said the purchases needed to go before voters since they were not part of the original scope of work.

The first set of purchases, totaling $5,470, passed easily. The first expenditure is for additional padding for around the gym, flags, additional shelving for the storage room, safety mirrors in the locker rooms and refinishing of a storage room floor that is considered unsafe.

The second set of expenditures is for additional bleachers for $12,000 and a Brooklyn logo for the gym floor costing $1,600. The additional bleachers ensure the entire school can be seated in the gym for programs.

Residents almost removed the logo from the purchase; however, the effort narrowly failed. The purchase of the bleachers and logo then passed easily.

Resident Lenny Bissonette said all of the purchases were unnecessary.

“In light of the economy right now and not knowing what’s happening with the state budget, we shouldn’t do this,” Bissonette said. “The project is a quarter-million more than the first planned. We have other projects that need to be done before this.”

Rick Ives, chairman of the Board of Finance, said the money has not been bonded but will not require any additional taxpayer money.

“I don’t want people to think this is more money being spent,” Ives said.

The school wall project had come before voters for two additional infusions of funding after its initial approval for $1.7 million. The town needed an additional appropriation of funding after bids came in over $1.7 million. In December 2012, voters were asked to appropriate an additional $90,000 for cost overruns stemming from changes in plans for the project.

Tanner said the building committee only needed about $50,000 of the additional $90,000 appropriation, leaving the money for the spending approved last week.